Heaven and its Wonders and Hell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell.

Heaven and its Wonders and Hell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell.

10.  Such spirits as have confirmed themselves during their life in the world in the belief that the good they do and the truth they believe is from themselves, or is appropriated to them as their own (which is the belief of all who place merit in good actions and claim righteousness to themselves) are not received into heaven.  Angels avoid them.  They look upon them as stupid and as thieves; as stupid because they continually have themselves in view and not the Divine; and as thieves because they steal from the Lord what is His.  These are averse to the belief of heaven, that it is the Divine of the Lord in the angels that makes heaven.

11.  The Lord teaches that those that are in heaven and in the church are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, when He says: 

Abide in Me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.  I am the Vine, ye are the branches.  He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing (John 15:4,5).

12.  From all this it can now be seen that the Lord dwells in the angels of heaven in what is His own, and thus that the Lord is the all in all things of heaven; and this for the reason that good from the Lord is the Lord in angels, for what is from the Lord is the Lord; consequently heaven to the angels is good from the Lord, and not anything of their own.

13.  III.  In heaven the divine of the lord is love to him and charity towards the neighbor.

The Divine that goes forth from the Lord is called in heaven Divine truth, for a reason that will presently appear.  This Divine truth flows into heaven from the Lord from His Divine love.  The Divine love and the Divine truth therefrom are related to each other as the fire of the sun and the light therefrom in the world, love resembling the fire of the sun and truth therefrom light from the sun.  Moreover, by correspondence fire signifies love, and light truth going forth from love.{1} From this it is clear what the Divine truth that goes forth from the Lord’s Divine love is-that in its essence it is Divine good joined to Divine truth, and being so conjoined it vivifies all things of heaven; just as in the world when the sun’s heat is joined to light it makes all things of the earth fruitful, which takes place in spring and summer.  It is otherwise when the heat is not joined with the light, that is, when the light is cold; then all things become torpid and lie dead.  With the angels this Divine good, which is compared to heat, is the good of love; and Divine truth, which is compared to light, is that through which and out of which good of love comes.

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Heaven and its Wonders and Hell from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.